"...the president has to pin the tail on the elephant."

[babylonsister]

Pretty damned depressing.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/16/tea-fueled-republican-resistance-compels-barack-obama-to-keep-running.html


Tea-Fueled Republican Resistance Compels Barack Obama To Keep Running
by Robert Shrum Mar 16, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
In 2012, Paul Ryan declared that the election would “determine” American policy. But in 2013, Republicans aren’t accepting the result, writes Robert Shrum.

snip//


So the resistance Obama faces today is not unusual, even if it is unusually bitter. What is fundamentally ahistorical is the GOP's utter unwillingness to compromise—and its willingness to threaten the underpinnings of both government and the economy. Even in the throes of the Watergate scandal, the two parties collaborated to keep the system whole, sound, and on track. Or think of 1997: after House Speaker Newt Gingrich had pioneered the apocalyptic tactic of shutting down the government, which brought a fierce political backlash, he worked with President Clinton to enact the measures that led to a balanced budget. It is perhaps Bill Clinton's greatest achievement—and hard as it is to say this, Gingrich's finest hour.

snip//

A great country shouldn't be making fateful fiscal decisions month by month, but it's better than physical collapse. That doesn't obviate the prospect of a gradual, grinding economic slowdown. Aside from the human pain, inflicted not just on federal workers but on the poorest and most vulnerable, the sequester is likely to reduce economic growth by at least half a percentage point and trigger the loss of one million jobs.

snip//

I've argued here before that the president in effect has to run for a third term in the midterm campaign. Aside from marshaling the unparalleled competencies of his organization—and I don't care about the tut-tutting of goo-goo groups like Common Cause about his fundraising for this—unilateral disarmament is not a sufficient response to the Koch brothers and their ilk—the president has to pin the tail on the elephant. As the sequester erodes the recovery, he has to hold them accountable, and he has to draw dividing lines on the budget and fiscal policy: growth now, deficit reduction over time; Social Security, Medicare, investment in the future, not tax windfalls for the wealthy.

On a broad span of issues, from economic justice to the rights of women, Hispanics, other minorities, and gays and lesbians, the GOP is paddling against the tide of history. They will do it less conspicuously now, as quietly as the base will let them. And in the meantime, in the name of a clichéd and miscarried fiscal discipline, they will block or weaken the recovery every step of the way—and hope no one notices. Obama can and must make sure everyone does.

The president has reached out, sought out middle ground, and repeatedly been rebuffed. His experience validates JFK's observation that you can't negotiate with those who say: "What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." For the sake of the nation, I wish Obama had some of the luck of Clinton in 1997. So while I never thought I'd write this either, maybe we should bring back Newt Gingrich.

[MotherPetrie]

1. IMO the problem is Obama reaches out way too far to Repugs and leaves Dem backs exposed

And vulnerable. He and his CoS Rahm Emmanuel repeatedly let their disdain for the libruls who put Obama in office shine through from the instant Obama got elected in 2008. Dems in the House paid for that dearly in 2010, as did the rest of us. And we are still paying and will continue to pay as Obama will have to keep throwing concessions at the Repugs until he meets enough of their terms. They have him where they want him but I don't think it's entirely where he doesn't want to be, because of what he is voluntarily offering up.

[zeeland]

2. Suggesting Bush SR. Has made us a kinder gentler nation

Is one of those voluntary offerings that cost him dearly. I get the impression
he doesn't consider it any great loss.